Magnon-Mediated Orbital Torque Switching through an Antiferromagnetic Insulator

Magnon-mediated spin-orbit torque (SOT) has emerged as a promising mechanism for efficient magnetization control in spintronic devices. Here, we provide experimental evidence for magnon-mediated orbital torque─the orbital analogue of magnon-mediated SOT. We demonstrate that the current-induced torque in Ti/NiO/CoPt heterostructures is governed by the orbital Hall effect in the Ti layer and exhibits a strong dependence on the antiferromagnetic ordering of NiO, indicating the magnon-mediated transport of orbital angular momentum through the antiferromagnetic insulator. Notably, the magnon-mediated orbital torque enables efficient manipulation of perpendicular magnetization with reduced electrical currents. These results open a pathway toward highly efficient orbitronic devices driven by magnons.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nano Letters
Published
2026-05-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6c01352
Primary Topic
Magnetic properties of thin films
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Magnon-Mediated Orbital Torque Switching through an Antiferromagnetic Insulator

Hongyu An, Weikai Luo, Zehan Chen, Peigang Han et al.
Nano Letters
Magnetic properties of thin films
article

Magnon-Mediated Orbital Torque Switching through an Antiferromagnetic Insulator

Hongyu An, Weikai Luo, Zehan Chen, Peigang Han, Ji Shi, Hui Yang, Qianwen Wang, Xinxing Xu, Kazuya Ando
article en

Abstract

Magnon-mediated spin-orbit torque (SOT) has emerged as a promising mechanism for efficient magnetization control in spintronic devices. Here, we provide experimental evidence for magnon-mediated orbital torque─the orbital analogue of magnon-mediated SOT. We demonstrate that the current-induced torque in Ti/NiO/CoPt heterostructures is governed by the orbital Hall effect in the Ti layer and exhibits a strong dependence on the antiferromagnetic ordering of NiO, indicating the magnon-mediated transport of orbital angular momentum through the antiferromagnetic insulator. Notably, the magnon-mediated orbital torque enables efficient manipulation of perpendicular magnetization with reduced electrical currents. These results open a pathway toward highly efficient orbitronic devices driven by magnons.

Nano Letters
South China Normal University (CN), Keio University (JP), Shanghai Institute for Science of Science (CN), Integrated Optoelectronics (Norway) (NO), Spintronics Research Network of Japan (JP), Shenzhen Technology University (CN), Institute of Science Tokyo (JP)
Shenzhen Technology University, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Department of Education of Guangdong Province, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Magnetic properties of thin films
DOISourceOpenAlex
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